Problem: The sum of two angles is $79^\circ$. Angle 2 is $146^\circ$ smaller than $4$ times angle 1. What are the measures of the two angles in degrees?
Answer: Let $x$ equal the measure of angle 1 and $y$ equal the measure of angle 2. The system of equations is then: ${x+y = 79}$ ${y = 4x-146}$ Since we already have solved for $y$ in terms of $x$ , we can use substitution to solve for $x$ and $y$ Substitute ${4x-146}$ for $y$ in the first equation. ${x + }{(4x-146)}{= 79}$ Simplify and solve for $x$ $ x+4x - 146 = 79 $ $ 5x-146 = 79 $ $ 5x = 225 $ $ x = \dfrac{225}{5} $ ${x = 45}$ Now that you know ${x = 45}$ , plug it back into $ {y = 4x-146}$ to find $y$ ${y = 4}{(45)}{ - 146}$ $y = 180 - 146$ ${y = 34}$ You can also plug ${x = 45}$ into $ {x+y = 79}$ and get the same answer for $y$ ${(45)}{ + y = 79}$ ${y = 34}$ The measure of angle 1 is $45^\circ$ and the measure of angle 2 is $34^\circ$.